we’re back from our quick two day jaunt to the coromandel – a popular holiday location for aucklanders. we did a 2 day taster trip as we were too late to book anywhere to stay this year. however, we did manage to find a motel which would have us for one night, so we set off on a very wet bank holiday monday in search of fun.
after driving down wiggly roads for a couple of hours we got to Cathedral Cove which is a bit like durdle door for those who known their Dorset in the UK. And similarly it required an hour long walk through native bush (Dorset has cliff edges instead)
here’s kezia doing a hat trick whilst the rest of us found a geocache
there’s been a lot of hoo hah down at cathedral cove as a local entrepreneur has been driving a boat round to it and running a little sweet shop (or ‘lolly’ shop)
he wasn’t there when we arrived, but it’s been front page news of the national paper. which probably says more about NZ journalism than the significant of a pirate lolly man
anyway it was jolly nice
as we made our way back up the hill the weather started to improve and we were all pretty hot by the time we got to the top carpark where a shuttle bus took us to the remote field which acted as the overflow carpark. that’s what happens if you visit on a bank holiday.
after that we had a picnic on a nearby beach before heading to hot water beach
hot water beach is a bit special as there’s a hot water spring right under the beach. which means you can dig your own hot pool an hour before or after low tide (when the water is low enough so you can get to the spring water)
we arrived late by which time people had dug their own pools in the flow of the spring. however, as we stood attempting to dig our own hole in the face of the returning tide, the people on the front left of this picture left and we got to stand in their space. the water was really warm, in fact too warm if you digged a little bit lower.
a very strange experience, and one we’ll repeat on a less busy day sometime !
after that we headed up north to whitianga (pronounced ‘fitty-anger’) and checked in to our ‘bargain’ very expensive motel for the night. after swimming in the pool we went to a local restaurant which was excellent. although the night lasted a lot longer than we expected because the food took ages coming. but that didn’t matter as it was a really nice place and we played silly games.
